Distraught Poem by Saroj Padhi

Caught behind the bars of heavy-line electric wires

the half-Moon languishes like a poor trafficked woman

behind cell wall of poisonous pimp clouds that conspire

to toss her as a petty coin into rapacious hands of man;



distressed she sheds some drops into heart of the wind

that moans over heavy-hearted city of accursed night

with wounds all over from blasts, burns, and acts unkind,

to be infected by stinking gutters and bars in dim light;



now she broods over her joyous days of the near past

when she tended to scented turmeric fields to run free,

as leaves hilarious clapped and the animals looked aghast

at her celestial beauty, when silver beams danced in spree;



how much intense is the craving now to play hide and seek

with Moon in mustard fields of yore like a young lover freak!